Jean Dubuffet, Personnage au chapeau, seins bas superposes (Figure with a Hat, Superimposed Low Breasts),  January 1952. Gouache and india ink. 14 ½ × 11 in. (36.8 × 27.9 cm). The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. Photography by Christopher Burke Studio. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- This January, the Hammer Museum presents the West Coast debut of Dubuffet Drawings, 1935–1962, the first in-depth museum exhibition of works on paper by French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985). Rejecting conventional notions of beauty and good taste, Dubuffet asserted that invention and creativity could only be found outside traditional cultural channels. Inspired by children’s drawings, graffiti, and the art of psychiatric patients, he emulated the immediacy of the untrained and untutored. He often turned to drawing, a medium in which he could indulge his passion for research and experimentation. 

Jean Dubuffet, Corps de dame (Lady's Body),  June–December 1950. Pen and india ink. 10¾ × 8 3/8 in. (27.3 × 25.1 cm). The Joan and Lester Avnet Collection, Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.

Dubuffet Drawings, 1935-1962 includes almost one hundred drawings from Dubuffet’s most innovative decades and features rarely seen works borrowed from private and public collections in France and the United States. His favorite subjects were mundane activities of everyday life—taking the subway, bicycling in the countryside—but he also tackled traditional genres like the portrait, the female nude, and the landscape, all the better to subvert expectations with his outrageous depictions. Insatiably curious, Dubuffet explored unorthodox materials and techniques, instilling into his drawings a sense of adventure that has kept them vibrant and relevant to this day. Organized by The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, the exhibition and catalogue were extensively researched by curator Isabelle Dervaux and her colleagues. The Hammer presentation is organized by chief curator Connie Butler, who also contributed an essay to the catalogue. 

Jean Dubuffet, La fermière (The Farmer’s Wife),  March 1955. Assemblage of imprints: collage of cut india-ink imprints with brush and ink, mounted on paperboard. 20½ × 25¼ in. (52 × 64 cm). The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. Photography by Christopher Burke Studio. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

“Dubuffet’s innovation and insatiable curiosity will delight the L.A. audience in this exhibition organized by The Morgan Library & Museum,” said Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum. “This exhibition brings back into focus an artist whose experimental work influenced generations of artists." 

A fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies Dubuffet Drawings, 1935-1962, by Isabelle Dervaux (Acquavella Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings, The Morgan Library & Museum), Margaret Holben Ellis (Director of the Thaw Conservation Center, The Morgan Library & Museum), Lindsey Tyne (Assistant Paper Conservator, The Morgan Library & Museum), Alex Potts (Max Loehr Collegiate Professor, Department of History of Art, University of Michigan), and Connie Butler (Chief Curator, The Hammer Museum). Co-published by The Morgan Library & Museum and Thomas & Hudson, the hardcover book is 224 pages with 150 illustrations. This catalogue is the first major publication devoted to works on paper by Dubuffet, one of the most important French artists of the 20th century

Jean Dubuffet, Quatre personnages (Four Figures),  July 1946. Gouache, with incising, on coarse sandpaper. 12 1/8 × 9½ in. (30.8 × 24.1 cm). Richard and Mary L. Gray and the Gray Collection Trust. Photography by Tom Van Eynde. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York /ADAGP, Paris.